A Lovely Common Weed.

Growing up, I’ve seen a lot of these everywhere. I used to call it as “buntot ng pusa” (Filipino term for cat’s tail) then I learned that it is another plant that bears that name. This particular one is referred to as “trompa ng elepante” which refers to the elephant’s nose and is scientifically named as Heliotropium Indicum.

Since it is very common and the hairy leaves look itchy, I never gave it much attention. The little white flowers seem so plain and nothing so special – only the swirling flower stems that really gives it an appeal. Until I got closer and noticed how intricate these tiny flowers are. What I thought as an ordinary white flowers are actually dashed with purple and yellow. And in one stem, these flowers don’t bloom at once. Each part of the stem has their own time to mature and wither for the rest to take their time to bloom. Lovely.